Daily Digest 12/27 – How The U.S. Gov’t Can Access Your Social Media, The Big Environmental Events In 2017

by DailyDigest

Economy

Schiff is refusing to move on. The future of liberal democracy in the United States and around the world is at stake, he told me, and the U.S. government is rapidly running out of time to respond to the threat (Schiff says he has no confidence that Trump will punish Russia over its role in the election). In Trump’s denial of Russian meddling, Schiff sees a “president-elect who cannot accept any facts that diminish any of his achievements, no matter how well-established the facts are.” But Schiff is also critical of Obama, whose “excess of caution” ended up “inviting too much Russian interference.” And he’s critical of his own party. “Democrats failed to persuade the American people why they should care” about Russia’s intervention, he said.

If Trump Hotels goes ahead with its efforts to expand to China, or even if it only lays plans to do so after his term in office, it could hugely complicate one of the most important foreign policy relationships Trump will have to negotiate during his presidency. And the suspicion that Trump as president might be trying to badger China or butter it up to promote his business there risks coloring perceptions of his every move in regard to Beijing — even those that are completely aboveboard.

SEIU, which represents nearly 2 million government, health care, and building-services workers and wields an annual budget of $300 million, is the nation’s second-largest union and arguably the most politically significant. In the past few years SEIU has mounted organized labor’s most effective political intervention with the “Fight for $15,” a campaign that’s dragged Democrats—from city council members to presidential candidates—further left on the minimum wage. At the same time, it cultivated close ties with President Obama and played a key role in passing Obamacare, and worked hard to elect Hillary Clinton.

A Trump transition spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

In the primaries, Trump called Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio “puppets” for accepting big money. He also attacked Hillary Clinton for meeting with donors to her foundation when she was secretary of state, even though he overstated the proportion of such meetings, and those donations went to charity, not toward putting Clinton or other Democrats in office.

Mentioning the new rule by name, Facebook added that “as a result of transparency reforms introduced this year by the USA Freedom Act, our report also contains additional information concerning National Security Letters (NSLs).” NSLs are “extraordinary search procedures” that give the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the power to “compel the disclosure of customer records held by banks, telephone companies, Internet Service Providers, and others.” They are extraordinary because detailed information can be surrendered without proper oversight, an issue that has led to countless cases of abuse.

“When production of the solar roof begins, Tesla will also incorporate Panasonic’s cells into the many kinds of solar glass tile roofs that Tesla will be manufacturing,” according to the statement. Tesla chairman Elon Musk revealed plans for solar roofs made of glass tiles in October.

Now, you shouldn’t worry about that too much when it comes to the panels used outside of the lab, because other factors ensure that they are nowhere near that ideal limit. In the lab, it’s a different story; there are experimental solar cells that get close to the limit. So research is now turning to ways to beat detailed balance. It turns out that you can do this by using conservation laws to prevent electrons from radiating the energy they just absorbed. Getting it to work is a bit delicate, however, and even understanding why it works is difficult. So what follows may be a bit confusing.

He has appointed climate sceptics to head all the key agencies responsible for either monitoring or dealing with climate change and is known to want to increase oil, gas and coal production. If he pulls the US out of the Paris deal, it would gift China climate leadership, set back efforts to brake emissions and do untold diplomatic damage with hundreds of countries who followed Obama’s leadership in 2015. Insiders expect him to ignore the voluntary commitments the US has made and to increase fossil fuel emissions. Many US climate scientists expect to lose research grants in what some expect to become a witch-hunt.

Gold & Silver

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Trump and Russian Meddling

Trump can have a win win on Russia. Very simple. He opens a thorough investigation into Russia's role in the hacking controversy after the inauguration. He wins by finding the truth…letting the chips fall where they may. He has already won the election….therefore it is a win..win. The other thing he could do is have public hearings on the electoral college and educate people on why it is a viable structure…( or not). Information is power. Truth is power. Obfuscation will destroy you.

Now it's liberals/progressives prepping and buying guns

This was pre-Trump’s November wipeout of Hillary, back when Democrats and establishment media cheerleaders were trying to convince each other that “gun control” was a winning issue. The narrative being promulgated was that while gun sales were going through the roof (ending the year with record sales numbers), they were all being bought up by a limited demographic of hard core extremists. And all the major polls agreed.

Just like they all were astounded to see Hillary crash and burn.

The citizen disarmament lobby hasn’t had time to adjust their talking points to cover another phenomenon that directly refutes two previously accepted “truisms”: “Progressives” buying guns for purposes other than “sport shooting,” and doing so for the express purpose of defending against what they see as a potentially tyrannical government and the chance of civil unrest. Likewise, minorities are also buying guns, and for the same reason.

Gun ownership has traditionally been associated with the right wing in America but the election of Donald Trump has prompted some left-wingers to join gun clubs – and even start preparing for the collapse of society.

"I really didn't expect to be thinking about purchasing a gun. It was something that my father did and I rolled my eyes at him."

Clara, a 28-year-old nursing student, grew up in the Mid-West, where "the folks that had guns were seen as hicks" or were just "culturally different", she says.

But since the election of Donald Trump in November she has started going to a gun range for the first time and is shopping around for a semi-automatic pistol.

"It's been seeing the way that Trump's election has mobilised a lot of the far right and given them hope," she says, citing a rise in reports of hate crimes and neo-Nazi activity.

As a transgender woman, she does not fear for her personal safety in the Californian city where she now lives but she says she knows people in rural areas "who woke up and found a bunch of swastikas and words like 'faggot' and 'trannie' scrawled all over their building".

She foresees a wide-ranging struggle between the Trump administration and the left over issues such as immigration and racial politics.

But won't buying a gun just increase tensions?

"Things are already escalating and they will continue to do so and me not engaging or being prepared to defend my friends by force… isn't going to stop people from being attacked or harassed," Clara says…

Gun sales in America hit record levels in October amid fears a Hillary Clinton election victory would lead to increased controls.

Many expected the election of Donald Trump, whose candidacy was backed by the National Rifle Association, to bring an end to the panic buying. Shares in gun manufacturers dropped by as much as 18% following his victory.

Some of this has been put down to gun retailers selling off stock at reduced prices, but there have also been reports of more "non-traditional" buyers, such as African Americans and other minorities, turning up at gun shops and shooting ranges.

Lara Smith, national spokesperson for the Liberal Gun Club, says her organisation has seen a "huge" rise in enquiries since November's election and a 10% increase in paid members.

Some of the new members are reluctant first-time gun owners, says Smith, concerned that isolated acts of aggression against minorities could escalate into something more violent and that a Trump administration will dismantle key constitutional rights, leading to a "more fascist rule than the US has ever had".